Duelist's Rose
by Chibi Lenne
Summary: Seto Kaiba, multi-billion dollar man, has to hire a personal assistant while fighting off the rabid fangirls. Not that they'd ever make the cut anyway. He meets, one applicant, Alexia Rhine, a girl who's unsure of her past, has decent dueling skills, and


_Author's Note: Bare with me Yu-Gi-Oh, fans. I haven' t written a fanfiction in a long time, and I may be a "little" rusty. But I hope you enjoy, oh, and please don't flame. Ya I know I'm not the best, but I'm not the worst either. If you don't like it, don't read it. This takes place somewhere between KC Grand Prix (known to us dubbers as Battle City), and Atlantis. I know there really isn't much time in between, or at least it comes across that way in the dubbed version of the anime. But please note, being a fanfiction, it's probably a tiny bit AU, but not totally. ENJOY!_

_ Also please not that anything (other than the Author's Note) written in Italics is the characters own thoughts. And yes I am using the name Pegasus J. Crawford because I like it so much better than Maxamillion Pegasus. So there P  
_

**Duelist's Rose**

Seto Kaiba sat in his office, his fingers massaging his forehead, another long day at work, and he had to interview these people. Why was it always his personal assistant that ran away crying and not one of the lesser employees? After all, it wasn't his fault the girl had run into him and spilled coffee all over his white trench coat. That incident had been over a week ago. It was that he was an unorganized person or anything like that, he just didn't have time, especially now that he and Mokuba were working towards building 'Kaiba Land'.

"M…Mr. Kaiba," his secretary had peeked in the door. Knowing her boss, as always, was in a horrible mood. "The next applicant is here," came the timid voice once again. Kaiba let out a growl, fear was the best way to control his employees. He watched as the petit woman cringed and then stood up again opening the door. She had said something to the applicant before she left. Kaiba found himself gawking at the young woman walking towards him. She couldn't be that much older than he was, but her hair…her hair that fell down to her waist was a snow white, actually it kind of reminded him of Yugi's little cheerleader friend, Bakura. Mentally he cursed himself _"Seto Kaiba you really need sleep. You're actually gawking at some silly female!"_ He shook himself out of his daze and turned his cold blue gaze up to the woman as she extended her hand in a professional manner.

With a raised eyebrow the woman took off her reading glasses, her pale green eyes watching the man that didn't even bother to shake her hand. She didn't bother sitting, this probably wouldn't take long. She pulled from her portfolio a copy of her resume and her qualifications slapping it down on the table in front of him.

"Right then," she said, speaking in a British accent, which was a little strange with the girl's naturally tanned skin. "My name is Alexia Rhine tell me right now, hire or fire, I won't waste my time playing suck up to get this job. I don't care who you are, or how important you think you are, but my time is just as important as yours, and I have things that need to be taken care of" well…she was blunt, to put it mildly.

That cold smirk graced Seto's face, the same smirk that had people wanting to either slap it off, or drool at his feet. The later being members of the "I heart Seto Kaiba Fan Club". He liked blunt, even if it was a little over the top. After all, he was sick of the simpering fan girls that flocked about him and tried to get the job, only to quit after a single day on the job. He only glanced at the list of qualifications on her resume before looking up at her again. That was when he stood up, towering over her by almost a foot, yes, this girl couldn't be that much older, or younger than he was, not that age mattered in this line of work. He was proof of that himself.

"And what makes you think you can waltz in here, shove a piece of paper in my face and demand to know on the spot if you're hired? Ms…Rhine?" he raised an eyebrow, usually when women came in for an interview, they blushed, they fidgeted, some even tried to come on to him, doing whatever it took to get the job. But this…was refreshingly new, but he would not give in so easily. "This is after all, my company, and I am the boss"

"Oh, and here I thought you were the janitor" she sighed and tapped her forehead. She was used to high pressure interviews like this. It was how she'd made a living after leaving the private school she'd basically grown up in. It was what she had been taught to do since she was very young; this was just her own unique way of showing potential to a possible employer. It had worked once before, she'd worked for Pegasus J. Crawford at one point. Not his personal assistant, but she'd helped with the organization of Duelist Kingdom. Though…she'd never figured out exactly what had gone wrong with that in the end. Though, knowing the outcome of that little event, she had completely left that off the resume currently clenched in Seto Kaiba's shaking fist.

"Now see here! You can't just barge in here and insult me…ME! Seto Kaiba. This is MY company. If you expect to work here…you're going to have to prove your worth. And this…this piece of paper…is garbage" he growled tossing her resume into the trash can at the end of his large desk. What impressed him was how nonchalant this woman's attitude was. Usually by this point women were sobbing and crying in hysterics as they ran out the door. No, this woman was perfect for the job, but he wasn't going to give it to her so easily, or at least he wouldn't let her think she was getting it so easily.

"Do you duel?" he inquired. He had promised Mokuba that he would lock away his duel deck, until the premier of Kaiba Land. But he had yet to do it, no…he wanted one last duel, one more chance to crush another victim. Maybe that was what this woman needed. It would certainly show her who the boss was.

"Of course I duel," came her reply after a moment's hesitation. Her dueling deck was of course in her purse, which was hanging off of her left shoulder. She was more surprised by his switch of gears, from anger to cool indifference, than she was by the question that came up. Everyone knew how seriously the 'great' Seto Kaiba took Duel Monsters. He had been the first in the world after all.

"Good, follow me" he said and began to lead her down a hall way, and down into the testing facility, where new duel disks were being tested out. "If you can beat me in a duel, and I seriously doubt you can," he started to explain as he put the duel disk on his wrist and picked his deck up off of the end. He may have lost Obelisk to Yugi in Battle City, but that didn't make him any less of a threat. "I MIGHT consider adding your name to the Kaiba Corporation payroll. I stress the word 'might'", he chuckled a little bit as he took his place across from her.

Alexia didn't know what to make of this. A duel with Seto Kaiba, what the hell was she thinking. Well what the hell had she been thinking when she'd stormed into his office like that anyway? Well, she took a deep breath, she could do this, he was just another duelist, she knew what kinds of cards he would play, and she did have a slight advantage, but not really. She bit down on her bottom lip setting her purse beside the console and picked up the spare duel disk. She'd never dueled with holographs or anything, just the old school style card game.

"What are you waiting for? Your very future in this company rests in the balance of this duel. Not chickening out are we? I hadn't pegged you as a coward" Kaiba sneered at her. That had done it. She wasn't going to let this guy get to her. She was just as good of a duelist as he was! She turned to him and slapped her deck into the disk hearing the counter set the meter to 8000 Life Points.

"I'm not chickening out Seto Kaiba. Let's get this duel over and done with!" she said drawing her first hand of five cards.

"Very well then, ladies first, I mean, I do need to actually give you a chance to play after all" he snickered and watched her as she growled at him. Oh she was going to get him back, if he became her boss…maybe she'd put x-lax in his coffee or something. She WOULD get him back, make no mistake about that!

Alexia lowered her gaze to her fist hand, not too bad, three monsters, two magic cards and one trap card. Things were looking up already…or she hoped. She looked across at Kaiba who seemed agitated and impatient.

"Hurry up already! You're the one who said they didn't want to waste time" he yelled at her glaring all the while at her with his cold blue eyes.

"FINE!" she yelled back. "I'll place one card face down, and summon Dark Blade in attack mode!" she said slapping the card down on the duel disk. She was amazed as the projection appeared in front of her it was pretty good after all. Dark Blade wasn't too bad of a card to start out with, he had an attack of 1800, and since they were playing by his modified rules…she was sitting in a good position at the moment.

"Ha…predictable…" he said and he looked to his hand. "I'll place one card face down as well, and then I'll summon Slate Warrior, in attack mode! Say goodbye to your worthless Dark Blade" he snickered. "Blade Warrior, attack her Dark Blade!" He grinned watching as the Slate Warrior charged her monster. When the attack connected he watched the dust settle, and then was surprised to see that when the dust finally cleared it was his Slate Warrior that was destroyed and his life points decreased by 600.

"What the!?" he glared at her and she was smirking at him, he had expected her to have a trap card that was –that- effective. Maybe a Waboku or something pitiful like what the 'cheerleader' had whenever she dueled.

"You know Kaiba, you really should pay attention," she said, she was holding up a card tapping it with her thumb before she placed it into her card graveyard. He knew that card; he used it a few times before! "You triggered my trap card, Shadow Spell. Normally it would decrease the monster's life points by 700 and stop it from attacking or switching to defense mode…however, since you'd already called the attack, it merely decreased his attack points making my Dark Blade stronger" she gave him a sweet smile he swore would give him a tooth ache. That was it, no more Mr. Nice-Guy.

"Don't lecture me on how to play this game! I'll place one more card face down and then end my turn" he grumbled looking over at her. He had two Blue Eyes White Dragons in his hand already, he just needed to be able to play them, and then he would crush her!

"Fine," she shrugged her shoulders and drew her next card, another Dark Blade…not too shabby at all. She looked up eyeing Kaiba "Time to add another monster to the field, so I'll play another Dark Blade, in attack mode, and I'll equip it with this magic card Axe of Despair! This magic card raises any monster's attack by 1000 attack points, making this Dark Blade have an attack of 2800! Dark Blade! Attack his life points directly!" she called out her attack. Duel Monsters was definitely better with the holographs, it was so much …more realistic.

"Not so fast! Reveal face down card!" Kaiba yelled and Alexia stared "Negate Attack!" Alexia growled a little bit and watched as the two Dark Blades came to a halt and moved back into place on her side of the field. That card ended her battle phase entirely. She looked down at her hand and frowned, "right then, I'll end my turn" she said begrudgingly and returned her gaze back to her opponent Seto Kaiba. She would win this duel…she HAD to win this duel!

_Current Duelist LP – Alexia Rhine 8000_

_Seto Kaiba 7200_

_To Be Continued…_


End file.
